Latin is anything but a dead language to gardeners. Botanical Latin is the international language used by botanists and horticulturists to communicate vital plant information to each other, the world, and especially to gardeners sorting through catalogs, nursery name tags, seed packages, and plant identification books. Conservatories, arboreta, and botanical gardens label plants for the public using Latin as well.
Of course, gardeners don’t need to enroll in Latin class before planting and visitors to botanical gardens aren’t screened for skills with Latin. Thousands of English words have Latin roots: terrace, conservatory, habitat, herbarium, and naturalist. Anyone with a background in high school Latin or Catholic mass will easily recognize and appreciate the Latin of botanical nomenclature.
Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), mid-18th century Swedish botanist and naturalist, developed a binomial system for classifying and naming plants in Philosophia botanica, Generaplantarum, and Species plantarum. His system is still in use today.
The binomial system of nomenclature provided a consistent method of naming that was brief, concise, and informative. Plant names consist of two terms, the genus name and the species name. The genus name was a capitalized noun in the Latin nominative singular. The species name was an adjective in lower case agreeing in case and number with the noun. For example, Quercus is the Latin genus for oak and albus is a species name meaning white. Hence, Quercus albus on a nursery tree label means “white oak”.
Today we refer to the genus and species name as the scientific name of the plant. The scientific name is a universal moniker in contrast to common names of plants. Common names may describe entirely different plants. Plants may have many different common names but only one scientific name. For example, Viola tricolor has at least seven common names: heartsease, Johnny-jump-up, love-in-idleness, call-me-to-you, wild pansy, pansy violet, and herb trinit.
Whereas the genus name classifies the plant in a group within a family of plants, the species name is descriptive and can bespeak a plants origin, its favored habitat, its scent, bloom time, color of flower, and shape of leaf. For the gardener the species name is extremely useful in locating just the right plant. Latin enlightens the gardener as well as the garden.
A Latin Primer for Gardeners
Latin is most useful in describing species. A few frequently found Latin adjectives for plants follow to get you on your way into speaking the gardener’s language:
Place of Origin
- japonica – Japan
- chinensis-China
- virginiana – Virginia
Color
- lutea – yellow
- azurea – blue
- aurea – gold
Habitat
- frigidus – grows in cold regions
- limosus – marshy places
- sylvicolus- grows in woods
About the leaves
- rotundifolia – round
- grandifolius – large
- serratifolius – serrated
About the flower
- floribundus – free-flowering
- grandiflorus – large flowers
- noctiflorus – night flowering
Flower scent
- fragrans – scented
- odorus – scented
- felosmus – foul-smelling
Feels to the touch
- lanatus – wooly
- viscosus – sticky
- horridus – prickly
Shaped like
- cordatus – heart
- lunatus – crescent
- globosus - round
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